Israel demonstrates their criminality again

Since September first, a flotilla of 40 ships from various nations have been slowly sailing across the Mediterranean to deliver a token amount of aid to Gaza. This is a PR move — the reason they are taking so long is because they’re not bringing huge amounts of relief, but are instead trying to bring attention to Israel’s oppression.

Because it specifically has the goal of bringing the world’s attention to the crimes of Israel, you know it would not undermine its message by, for instance, secretly hauling crates of AK-47s. It’s just food and medical aid, and people who are talking on their cell phones to spread the message. That’s why the flotilla has been harassed by electronic countermeasures along the way, and getting buzzed by drones to deprive the passengers of sleep.

And then, yesterday, the Israeli navy boarded the ships and detained people, ending the flotilla’s mission. They have excuses!

Israel has argued its actions constitute a lawful naval blockade needed to prevent Hamas from importing arms, while critics consider it collective punishment of Palestinians in Gaza.

Whether the blockade is militarily justified is a point of contention. But the flotilla argues they are a civilian, unarmed group and that the passage of humanitarian aid is guaranteed under international law.

Uh, Israel? You’ve seized the ships, you’ve got troops on board, if they were importing arms, you could be releasing photos of those imaginary crates of AK-47s. You could produce documents that you’ve seized showing correspondence with terrorist organizations. They haven’t! It wouldn’t be believable given Israel’s history of faking evidence, and given the flotilla’s obvious goal of establishing a peaceful propaganda coup.

Well, they succeeded. Israel’s ham-handed attack on the flotilla is just demonstrating that they are criminals who don’t like their ongoing genocide being interrupted by peaceful activists.

West Point is training antifa traitors!

West Point, the military training institution, has something called “Constitution Corner” where various plaques celebrating the principles of the Constitution are posted. This one is outright seditious.

The United States boldly broke with the ancient military custom of swearing loyalty to a leader. Article VI required that American Officers thereafter swear loyalty to our basic law, the Constitution
While many other nations have suffered military coups, the United States never has. Our American Code of Military Obedience requires that, should orders and the law ever conflict, our officers must obey the law. Many other nations have adopted our principle of loyalty to the basic law.
This nation must have military leaders of principle and integrity so strong that their oaths to support and defend the Constitution will unfailingly govern their actions. The purpose of the United States Military Academy is to provide such leaders of character.

That is definitely antifa.

Are you a criminal?

Yes, you are! President Trump (or more perhaps more accurately, Stephen Miller) has issued an Executive Memorandum on National Security for Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence. It names all the activities/ideas that they claim lead to domestic terrorism.

There are common recurrent motivations and indicia uniting this pattern of violent and terroristic activities under the umbrella of self-described “anti-fascism.” These movements portray foundational American principles (e.g., support for law enforcement and border control) as “fascist” to justify and encourage acts of violent revolution. This “anti-fascist” lie has become the organizing rallying cry used by domestic terrorists to wage a violent assault against democratic institutions, constitutional rights, and fundamental American liberties. Common threads animating this violent conduct include anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States Government; extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality. As described in the Order of September 22, 2025 (Designating Antifa as a Domestic Terrorist Organization), the groups and entities that perpetuate this extremism have created a movement that embraces and elevates violence to achieve policy outcomes, including justifying additional assassinations. For example, Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin engraved the bullets used in the murder with so-called “anti-fascist” rhetoric.

Here’s a convenient list of beliefs that will make you a suspicious person whose arrest is justified before they commit any crime. It’s vague and unenforceable, except by a Kafkaesque bureaucracy that doesn’t care about evidence or rational justification. I went through the list and checked off all the ones that apply to me — or at least, could be twisted to label me.

✓ anti-Americanism,

✓ anti-capitalism,

✓ anti-Christianity,

• support for the overthrow of the United States Government,

? extremism on migration,

? extremism on race,

? extremism on gender

✓ hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family,

✓ hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on religion, and

✓ hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on morality.

(I put a question mark by the “extremism” items, because it’s so vague that it could apply to anyone — I think claiming there are only two sexes is extremist, for instance.)

The only one that doesn’t apply is “support for the overthrow of the United States Government” but, you know, at the rate things are going that could change.

Check yourself! Who else will be joining me in an internment camp? See you all in some sweltering tropical swamp surrounded by barbed wire in the near future!

Why are they on the front lines?

Here’s the same thing I said the other day, only far more amusingly.

Where is the Democratic leadership? We’ve got a couple of do-nothings like Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries doing their best to dodge responsibility, rather than standing up and fighting back. The Democrats have no coherent policy on health care to oppose the quacks who have taken over our scientific institutions, and on the issue of immigration, they seem to be Republicans Lite. I dread the next election — I’ll be voting against every Republican on the ballot, but I won’t be enthused about voting for the opposition.

OK, I’m warming to Tim Walz.

Just another liberal-atheist terrorist

There was a terrible mass shooting in Michigan — the killer drove a truck into a Mormon church, set it on fire, and killed four. What I mainly heard in the aftermath of the tragedy was that the killer hated Mormons, thought they were an anti-Christian cult, etc., etc., etc., and Fox News was practically drooling at being able to pin this event on a leftist god-hating atheist fanatic. That’s what we do, after all.

Trump has declared,

PRAY for the victims, and their families. THIS EPIDEMIC OF VIOLENCE IN OUR COUNTRY MUST END, IMMEDIATELY!

That hope that the bad guy was on the correct side of the political spectrum has been fading away as we learned more about the guy. He was a Marine who served in Iraq. He drove a pickup truck with two American flags flapping above the bed.

Sanford’s political beliefs were reportedly conservative, and he was seen wearing a T-shirt endorsing Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election bid in a photo shared on Facebook, according to the Daily Mail.

The suspected shooter’s T-shirt also featured a graphic reading “Make liberals cry again.”

A Google Street view of Sanford’s home taken in June showed a “Trump-Pence” sign affixed to a back fence, the Detroit Free Press reports.

Meanwhile, the motive for the attack is unclear, just as you might expect from a sneaky liberal commie.

How are you holding up, Oregonians?

As a former resident of Oregon, and a frequent visitor to the lovely city of Portland, I was dismayed to learn that it is now war ravaged, and that our president is declaring Full Force war against the city.

At the request of Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, | am directing Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists. | am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

War correspondents have been dispatched to the battle zone, reporting on the horror of the ongoing battles.

Earlier Saturday, there was no sign of any federal presence downtown, where people jogged along the Willamette River, relaxed by a riverside fountain or rode bikes on a sunny fall day.

“Where’s the emergency?” asked resident Allen Schmertzler, 72, who said he was “disgusted” by the president’s decision.

Another, John McNeur, 74, called Trump’s statement “ridiculous.” He pointed out that he was taking “a leisurely stroll” along the river on a peaceful, sunny day.

“This place is not a city that’s out of control,” he said. “It’s just a beautiful place.”

That sounds like the Portland I remember. Where are the Antifa sieges taking place? I remember a very nice donut shop near the OHSU school of medicine, I hope it isn’t being shelled or bombed. We used to take the kids to OMSI, are you able to get past the barricades to the museum any more?

I don’t want to care about Jimmy Kimmel, or Disney Corp.

It’s good news that right-wing broadcaster Sinclair had to reverse course on their attempt to get late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel fired, but I have to get real about this situation. Kimmel is an entertainer, not the leader of a progressive opposition party — he’s just a guy. He’s a court jester. What we should be aware of is the fragility of that position when an autocrat takes offense at relatively mild jokes and tries to destroy a person, and we also have to recognize that there are all these undeservedly wealthy people who will eagerly jump to do the wanna-be king’s bidding. If we get rid of Trump, Sinclair will still be there pushing propaganda for the very worst people in the country.

Is this a victory for free speech, though? Allow me to not-at-all subtly draw your attention to the real winners.

Facing the threat of lost advertising dollars, Sinclair said it “received thoughtful feedback from viewers, advertisers, and community leaders representing a wide range of perspectives.” Nexstar separately announced an end to its blackout of Kimmel shortly after this article published.

I hope I was clear…the ones who really control everything are the corporations with advertising dollars, that is, capitalism. There is a link between advertising and the will of the people, but it’s weakened by the reliance of those corporations on persuasive lies.

There is still some genuinely good news, though. Sinclair got nothing, their attempt to impose their rotten political beliefs on everyone was thoroughly repudiated, and they ran off whimpering with their tails between their legs.

I do wish this victory was over something more significant than propping up a media figure.

An American sickness

We have a chain restaurant that advertises with intimidatingly large flags

I don’t have any flags flying from my house, which makes me an exceptional American. OK, maybe not too exceptional — most houses don’t have flagpoles and aren’t waving their patriotism in everyone’s faces, but having been to Europe and Australia and Asia, I know that in comparison we tend to be a flag-happy nation. But really, the only places, other than official places like the county courthouse and schools, that display a flag also tend to be draped with MAGA nonsense, with pickup trucks covered in ugly political bumper stickers parked in front of them.

That’s fine, I appreciate seeing another visible signifier. But then, I was sent this tweet from Eric Daugherty, a Florida Republican nobody, who has somehow earned the approval of Twitter to send out mass notifications. He is shocked, shocked, shocked that some Americans might see no problem with other country’s flags.

How strange and peculiarly American. Mexico is an ally, and Mexicans are our friends, so she is showing support for an allied nation. We are not enemies, although MAGA seems to think so. It does not diminish us to exhibit solidarity with Mexicans and residents of Mexican descent, especially when an American regime is in power and trying to oppress them.

As for the cost, you can buy a pack of 25 small Mexican flags for less than $20 on Amazon. You don’t need to be George Soros to afford that. Also, people voluntarily attend these kinds of protests without demanding payment — I was at a couple of them earlier this summer. If I ever get out to another protest, maybe I’ll sink some pocket change into getting a few flags-onna-stick to hand out.

If I want to be daring, maybe I should get a bunch of Canadian flags, too.

Anything to counter this weird “patriotic” obsession with the American flag. Did all those years in school pledging allegiance to a stupid flag poison our brains?

It’s not the escalator that was broken

Trump gave an embarrassing speech at the UN, full of whininess and petulance and egotism, and on social media all you’ll find is conspiracy theorists inventing conspiracies about an escalator that stopped working and a faulty teleprompter. We need to stop funding the UN because they intentionally stopped an escalator! It’s the most petty stuff yet.

Except that the AP reports the actual causes:

Stephane Dujarric, the U.N. spokesman, said a videographer from the U.S. delegation who ran ahead of him triggered the stop mechanism at the top of the escalator.

“The safety mechanism is designed to prevent people or objects accidentally being caught and stuck in or pulled into the gearing,” Dujarric said in a statement. “The videographer may have inadvertently triggered the safety function.”

…
A U.N. official speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue contributed that one to his side as well, saying the White House was operating the teleprompter for the president.

That did not stop Trump from complaining about it in his speech, nor has it prevented the MAGA hordes from inventing scenarios where the minor incidents were contrived to afflict the president.

It’s a distraction. What everyone should be talking about is his rambling, incoherent, accusatory speech where he made up lies about stopping 7 wars and that he deserved a Nobel prize for each of them (he’s obsessed with prizes, like a 4 year old at Chuck E. Cheese), and went on to accuse every other nation of being failures who had fallen for the scams of environmentalists. It was absolutely deranged. This ought to be grounds for impeachment due to incompetence, except that all the Republicans believe that Trumpism is what will keep them in power, and we also dread seeing JD Vance elevated further.

I mean, really, his brain is broken.

Oh, and about that claim that he ended 7 wars:

And the Cambodian-Thai border crisis is still going on.

He’s done diddly-squat but he wants a Nobel peace prize for it.

I guess I’m in hiding

I’ve gotten a few calls from the university today — I was worried that something important had happened to my lab, but no, administrators were just concerned because of this event happening this evening.

Yeah, those a-holes are speaking at my university, led by Knowles, one of the negligible intellects at the Daily Wire who has been on the anti-trans bandwagon for a while now, and with little else to say. I imagine he’ll be on the stage at the Twin Cities campus trying to stir up a little hate this evening, and in an over-abundance of caution, the administration is asking to temporarily suppress my information on the university web site, with my consent.

I agreed. I can’t run away very fast nowadays, so better safe than sorry.

They should have called this the “American Go Away Tour.”